


Once Upon A Time

by Kris



Category: Eureka
Genre: Community: rounds_of_kink, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-07
Updated: 2009-06-07
Packaged: 2017-10-12 10:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kris/pseuds/Kris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eureka, a sort of fairy tale</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon A Time

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Eureka, Nathan Stark/Jack Carter, Fairytales, AU  
> Beta read by Ash/Jack Vale

They're in a room, about 10 x 15 with stone walls and sconces that flicker with soft firelight. There are only three things in the room, a storybook and the table it sits on and a window that looks out onto a castle bustling with activity. The storybook flickers, the holographic representation continually trying to gain the attention of the humans in the room like a game of Mahjong highlighting the next move. Jack tries the door in frustration but like the last few times it doesn't open. Nathan rolls his eyes and walks to the table.

"What did you need to program a holodeck for? Why the hell do you even have this thing?" Jack demands. "It's not like this has any military application."

"Okay, one, you're wrong, mostly about everything all the time and so you should shut up, but definitely about this. It's not like we can't program in a training scenario," Nathan replies in scorn. "And two, it's not a holodeck."

"Virtual Enhanced Reality Inter-whatever," Jack mutters. 

"VERI Real 3D imaging is going to change the world, Sheriff," Nathan says. He flips the storybook open and the space in the air in front of them swirls until Allison's face appears like the Wizard of Oz.

"Allison? What the hell?" Jack sounds startled and angry, a typical reaction for the sheriff lately when concerning things that go wrong and Global.

"Welcome, players, to The Quest," Allison says, voice pitch perfect. "I will be your guide."

"You programmed Allison into here?" Nathan holds his hands up in a defensive gesture as Jack glares at him.

"Don't look at me, I didn't program this one, I have no idea what its purpose is."

"Your purpose is The Quest," Allison says.

"Oh, just great," Jack groans. "She's interactive."

"The Quest, what exactly does it entail?" Nathan asks. Allison smiles at them.

"One player must travel the lands to rescue the Princess from the Castle of Doom high upon the Mountain of Despair,” she says. Jack points at Nathan who immediately points at Jack.

"And the other player?" Jack asks cautiously. Allison's smile grows to blinding proportions.

"The other player is the Princess,” she says and Jack shouts, startled, as the ground opens up beneath him and he falls through the floor into a new room, landing on a really large, soft bed. Nathan stares at the place where Jack had been then at the door that has suddenly appeared. He's wearing what looks like medieval hunting clothing, leather pants and a linen shirt. The door opens and a young boy who looks a lot like Fargo stares at him in relief.

"Oh thank goodness, I've found you, Highness, the Princess has been captured by the Troll." Nathan looks up at Allison's smirking face and back at Fargo's.

"Well shit," he mutters.

***

The horse they give him to ride is absolutely monstrous, Nathan looks up at Allison. "So if I don't get on the horse?" he asks. 

"Then The Quest cannot begin," Allison says. Nathan looks back at the horse and sighs.

"Well, at least it's not a real one," he says.

"Hey, watch who you're callin' not real, mate," the horse says. 

"Taggart?"

***  
"You reach the edge of the Forest of Death, do you continue on like a brave and shining knight or do you turn around to the south to go around the forest, adding another three weeks onto your journey?"

Nathan looks up at Allison's head and asks "I get a choice?"

"Of course, all of The Quest is a choice."

"That sounds too easy. What's in the forest?"

"Extremely large, carnivorous cats; smaller, striped, carnivorous cats and the occasional Ursus arctos horribilis," Allison says. Nathan eyes her and plans on killing Fargo, as soon as he gets out of here.

"Seriously? Lions and tigers and bears? What happens if I go around the Forest of Death?" Allison rolls her eyes.

"If you attempt to avoid the forest, you will add three weeks to the journey," she says, and mumbles something at the end.

"What was that?" he asks. "That last part." She huffs and if she'd had a body, Nathan knows she would have wrung her hands or waved them in the air around her head to make her point.

"And a dragon eats the Princess," she enunciates. "If you choose to avoid the forest, the dragon gets hungry waiting for you and eats the Princess."

"And then game over?" he asks.

"Well, and then the Princess is dead, if that's what you were aiming for, but if the Princess dies, you get to suffer the shame of not completing The Quest, and a new Quest must be arranged." Nathan nudges Taggart towards the woods.

***

"Lions and tigers and bears, I'm going to kill that idiot," Nathan mutters and keeps stomping. Taggart is following behind because three hours ago the damned trees said that he shouldn't be riding the horse through the woods and had knocked him off Taggart's back. Allison was snickering behind him because he's covered in mud from the swamp, he's bruised and bleeding from the stupid living trees and the lion cub that had attached itself to Nathan's boot wasn't letting go.

There are psychotropic mushrooms that, once Taggart trod all over them, released a cloud of dust that helps Nathan to understand why it's called the Mountain of Despair, and why he's passed several sets of bones, both horse and rider, as if they just sat down on the side of the road and didn't get back up.

He's feeling really depressed right now. And also homicidal.

***

The dragon, in a stroke of luck, is nowhere to be seen. Even Allison looks perplexed until Nathan hears the sound of an engine, completely out of place and looks up. There's a plane skywriting, the message says "Sorry, my bad – Fargo."

***

The Castle of Doom would probably have been scarier and much more difficult to navigate if it weren't for the fact that all of the traps seem to have been already set off before he gets there. The mushrooms have worn off and he's just feeling kind of mellow now, and hungry.

When he gets to the tallest tower at the top of the castle, the door to Jack's room is open and the Sheriff is lying on the raised bed in centre of the room, completely asleep.

"Hmmp," Allison says. "Well, at least this portion of the quest is going right."

"Wake up, Sheriff," Nathan orders. Jack, predictably, doesn't stir and Nathan grinds his back molars together because he knows, just knows, where this is going. He sits on the edge of the bed and shakes Jack's shoulder, almost violently. Allison's head is giving him an impatient look and Nathan groans and says 'fine' in a bitten off kind of tone. He leans down over Jack, their lips just an inch apart, their breaths mingling, Nathan would never admit it to anyone, but he's kind of turned on, and then Jack's eyes pop open.

"Sorry," he says, eyes mischievous. "I'm just messing with you." Nathan wraps his hands around Jack's neck as the world kind of dissolves around them. Allison's voice says "Quest Completed."

***

It takes a lot of convincing on Allison's, the real Allison's, part for Nathan not to wring Jack's neck and then Fargo's. Instead he lets her order them both to medical for checkups and send him home when she realizes that Nathan is trying to head back to his office. They've apparently been trapped in the simulation for over a day but it didn't feel like it because Fargo hadn't programmed in a night setting.

Nathan makes it halfway home before he gets to a particular intersection. He sits there for a second before he decides finally to turn left instead of right. Towards the Castle of Doom, so to speak.

The bunker door swings open before he even gets down the stairs and Zoe smiles brightly at him as she brushes by with a "Hi, Dr. Stark. See you later, Dr. Stark." Nathan catches Jack's eye, the long white sofa between them.

"Sleepover," Jack says as S.A.R.A.H. swings the door shut behind Nathan. "I apparently promised some time last week if she didn't go to school wearing a belt instead of a skirt." Nathan nods.

"So," he says. Jack looks at him and bites his lip. Nathan's eyes are drawn to him.

"So," Jack says but it sounds like an agreement. Nathan kicks his shoes off at the door, steps around the couch and meets Jack's mouth halfway.

"I ought to spank you, for screwing with me like that," Nathan breathes against Jack's lips. Jack shudders minutely at the words.

"God, yeah, okay," he says and shoves Nathan in the direction of the stairs.


End file.
